What is BDS?

Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) is a Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice and equality. BDS upholds the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity.

"Lake Erie Yearly Meeting calls for Friends to join the boycott of products made in Israel's illegal West Bank settlements and to divest from companies that support Israel's military occupation and repression of the Palestinian people."

Congratulations to member organization Palestine-Israel Action Group of Ann Arbor Friends Meeting and the many others who helped achieve this breakthrough, the latest in a string of Quaker decisions and actions in support of Palestinian rights, including (click here for a complete list):

Last year, the Friends Fiduciary Corporation, which manages more than 300 Quaker institutions, divested more than $1.2 million in holdings of Caterpillar, Hewlett Packard and Veoliafollowing advocacy by Ann Arbor Friends working for Palestinian rights.

The American Friends Service Committee implemented a screenbanning investment in 29 companies that benefit from the Israeli occupation. Earlier this year, the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) U.S. unanimously adopted the same screen!

Now, the U.S. Quakers are setting their sights on Israel's illegal settlement products.Illinois Yearly Meeting, Blue River Quarterly Meeting, St. Louis Monthly Meeting and Colorado Springs Monthly Meeting all came out in support of the We Divest Campaign(check out the new website!) urging financial giant TIAA-CREF to divest from the Israeli occupation.

Likewise, inspired by the MCC-U.S. decision to go occupation-free, Mennonites have QPIN and Menno-PIN could soon be the newest members of theInterfaith Boycott Coalition, a network of the US Campaign, which launched a campaign earlier this year to boycott SodaStream, an Israeli settlement product. If you haven't yet,sign the "Thirsting for Justice" petition to show your support for the Interfaith SodaStream Boycott.

Faith-based organizing and SodaStream boycotts will be just two of the many topics covered at the US Campaign's 12th AnnualNational Organizers' Conference September 20-22 -- less than three weeks away! -- at George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia. Have you registered yet?

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This website is maintained by the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the coalition of Palestinian organisations that leads and supports the BDS movement and by the Palestinian Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), a BNC member organisation.